The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Tom Gordon is a character based on a real person, a former major league baseball pitcher. During the events of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, he is a relief pitcher for the Red Sox and Trisha and Larry’s favorite player. Gordon is known for his signature calm on the pitch when closing and his victory gesture, a skyward point.

Although Trisha never meets the real Tom Gordon, he serves as her imagined guardian throughout her journey. At the beginning of the novel she conjures a fantasy of him to distract herself from her family’s bickering. Later, she combats her isolation by speaking out loud to him as if he is walking next to her. When her physical and mental stress begins to take a toll on her psyche, she hallucinates Tom Gordon by her side. In the midst of an unfathomable situation, he provides a sense of order and guidance.

Gordon gives Trisha essential counsel at several moments in the story. He tells her that the key to winning a game is to believe in yourself and let your adversary know you are in control. This advice later helps her in her confrontation with the God of the Lost, when she is able to channel Gordon’s signature confidence and calm to avoid being attacked.

Because Gordon is hallucinated, all of the advice he gives Trisha comes from her own thoughts and memories. As Trisha learns to trust her instincts and rely on herself, Gordon acts as a vehicle for her to accept the knowledge that is already within her by filtering it through the lens of a trustworthy role model. His presence by Trisha’s side represents the unfailing courage, wit and determination that ultimately save her life. Tom Gordon remains with Trisha until she makes it out of the woods, emotionally and literally. In her final dream before waking up in her hospital bed, he tells her that she has done well before vanishing, leaving Trisha in the safe hands of her family.

The God of the Lost is an ominous creature that follows Trisha through the woods. At first, she senses its presence only subconsciously, suddenly feeling watched in the otherwise-empty forest. It soon begins to make its presence known through violence, slashing deep claw marks into nearby trees and brutally killing several deer.

The God of the Lost represents the senseless evil that is an unfortunate part of the human experience. It also embodies Trisha’s fears of the unknown, hostile nature, death, and her fear that the world is an essentially bad place. The creature stalks Trisha slowly, nearly driving her out of her mind with terror. When it finally appears to her in the penultimate chapter of the novel, it initially looks like a black bear. Upon closer inspection, Trisha sees that it is a grotesque creature with a body full of wasps and empty, bug-filled eyes. In its hollow sockets is “death and disease and everything random,” (292) all of the horrible things that can befall a person for no reason.

King ultimately leaves it ambiguous whether the creature that confronts Trisha is really just a bear or something more, but no matter what its true form is, it is intent on killing Trisha. By keeping calm in the face of pressure, Trisha is able to evade the God of the Lost, signifying that she has conquered her fears and is finally free of her ordeal.

Larry is Trisha’s father. Since his divorce from Quilla, Larry lives alone in Malden, with occasional weekend visits from Pete and Trisha.

Larry is a complex father figure to Trisha. She loves him dearly and they share a connection as die-hard Red Sox fans. Trisha looks up to her father, as evinced by the way she frequently borrows his turns of phrase and recalls his advice throughout the novel. However, King portrays Larry as a flawed parent. He abuses alcohol, which sometimes makes him less than attentive to his children. When Trisha’s fears overtake her in the woods, she has a nightmare about her father mocking her and sending her into a dangerous situation to get him more beer. Along with Quilla, Larry’s less-than-perfect parenting feeds into Trisha’s feelings of abandonment and fear that no one is looking out for her. However, after further reflection on his life, Trisha realizes that Larry is sad and lonely. This realization helps Trisha accept that the world is not a fair place.

At the end of the novel, Trisha and Larry have a heartfelt moment of connection, and she feels comforted by his presence. His character demonstrates that parents are just people and do not have to be perfect in order to have a loving relationship with their children.

Quilla is Trisha’s mother. Despite trying hard to connect with her children, Quilla fails Trisha at a vital moment when she lets her wander off the trail unnoticed, preoccupied by an argument. Quilla later feels intense guilt and grief about her failure to protect her daughter. Although her distracted parenting is part of the reason Trisha gets lost in the first place, her love and care indirectly helps Trisha survive the woods. The advice she gives Trisha about the natural world helps her daughter identify edible plants in the woods, which saves her from starvation.

Despite her flaws, King frames Quilla as a woman who is doing her best to carry on in the wake of a major life shakeup. Her weaknesses as a parent teach Trisha about the importance of being able to rely on oneself.